Iowans with mental illness find courage to take the stage

Hilary Hippen-Leek doubts she could have found anybody to step on a Des Moines stage and talk openly about their mental illnesses if she’d sought volunteers a decade ago.“I think the stigma was too great. It was still a topic that was kept in your therapist’s office, your doctor’s office, your kitchen – and that’s as far as it went,” she said.